DCATS hosts art sale featuring works by transgender artists on Black Friday
Proceeds from event directly benefit National Binder Exchange Program that links trans males with chest binders
The DC Area Transmasculine Society will host a three-day art sale featuring the work of transgender artists in order to raise money for DCATS’ National Binder Exchange Program.
The sale, which runs from Nov. 27-29 and will only feature works by non-cisgender artists, will allow participants to browse items ranging from prints to paintings to jewelry, music, and other items.
Trans and nonbinary artists interested in selling items are asked to list their items by Nov. 26.
While potential buyers are perusing items on sale, DCATS will ask them if they wish to provide an optional donation to DCATS. All participating artists must agree to sell to those who pledge the highest donation.
“Basically, what happens is that the artists agree to sell to the person who purchased the highest donation to DCATS,” Jamison Crowell, the executive director of DCATS, told Metro Weekly in an interview. “So it’s a way to bring more publicity to these trans artists, and at the same time, provide some money to DCATS from those that are supporting the artists.
“We don’t charge the trans folks money to list art items on the site,” he adds. “All the money that’s being donated is coming from the people that are interested in buying the art. After the sale period ends, the winning buyer gets a notification saying, ‘Hey, you promised to put down this amount, and you have 24 hours to send a donation.’ So they don’t get connected to the artist until we actually confirm that they get the donation, which is submitted through Venmo or PayPal or methods that are easy to track.
“Once we get that confirmation, then we send it to the artist and say, ‘This item sold. This is the person that you have to sell to,” Crowell says. “And here’s a list of other potential buyers who have agreed to give your their contact information because they’re interested in finding out what other works or items you might have available for them.”
See also: Part-clothing drive, part-swap meet, TranSwap offers gender-affirming outfits for trans people
Proceeds raised from the art sale directly benefit DCATS’ National Binder Exchange Program, which links transmasculine individuals with chest binders and allows them to turn in their old binders when they are no longer needed.
“The program is for people who are transmasculine, have gender dysphoria around their chest, and can’t afford a binder they apply for,” explains Crowell. “They apply for a new binder and we ship them out. We’ve had a huge surge of applications, so we’re forming partnerships with LGBTQ centers and top surgeons around the country who want to collect binders for us to give, and we distribute them through our program. Just to put it in context, in November alone, we’ve shipped over 80 to 90 binders.”
DCATS’ Trans Art Sale, benefitting the National Binder Exchange Program, takes place from Friday, Nov. 27 to Sunday, Nov. 29 online. For more information, or to begin browsing items for sale, visit dcats.knack.com/transartsale.
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